Process for improving ferrous metals



ALADAR YACZ, OF CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, OHIO.

PROCESS FORIIMPROVIN G FERROUS METALS.

No Drawing.

I T 0 all whom itmay concern; 1

Be it known that I',-'ALADAR PAOZ, a citizen of the United States, residin at Cleveland Heights, in the county of uy'ahoga and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Processes for Improving Ferrous Metals, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description. v

This invention relates to the treatment of ferrous'metalsfor the purpose of scavenging or deoxidizing the same,.and also of prOdllciIlg certain properties and qualities therein, the better to fit them for certain commercial purposes. In the manufacture of iron and steel it is customary to add to the molten metal certain substances, frequently called, deoxidizers or scavengers, such a metallic manganese, titanium and the like, which shall combine with any oxygen absorbed in or combined with the. molten metal, themselves becoming oxidized and combining with the slag. Aluminum has been suggested for this purpose, but offers the practical disadvantages of a too rapid reaction and of producting a product which is too infusible to separate and slag off readily and also too inactive-chemically to combine easily with other substances w ich I have also dis-- might assistits fusion. covered that when by my improved process sufiic'ientaluminum is added to molten iron to appear in the alloyed state in the resulting product, a metallic composition is obtained which possesses very great resistance to oxidation at high temperatures as is frequently desirable in connection with furnace parts, heat treating boxes, carbonizing boxes, metallurgical tools, and the like hi h temperature apparatus.

he. essence of my invention or discovery is that if the aluminum be alloyed prior to its addition to the ferrous metal with a material quantity of silicon, both the above described difficulties are avoided, the silicon serving to restrain the rapidity and violence of the reaction and also byits simultaneous oxidation to produce as a flux the comparatively fusible aluminum silicate instead of the highly refractory aluminum oxid. Besides the character of the resulting metal is much improved whether -all the aluminum be absorbed in process. or whether enough be added so that some of the same persists inthe finished alloy.

In the performance of my said invention,

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Nov. 8, 1921.

Application-filed April 16, 1920. Serial No. 374,26.

I preferably employ'an alloy containing not less than about ten per, cent. nor more than about forty per cent of silicon, with the balance largely aluminum; although quan titles of other metals such as manganese, titanium, vanadium, tungsten, molybdenum, boron, iron, nickel, cobalt, or chromium can be employed'if desired, Orin case they occur as impurities as is sometimes the case. An aluminum alloy containing the quantity of silicon, above mentioned will react more slowly and will also produce a flux having a composition sufiiciently near the theoretically correct relative amounts of silica and alumina to fuse readily and separate easily. Besides such an alloy is normally sufficiently brittle to be readly disintegrated, thus facilitating its incorporation with the molten bath which may be effected either in the customary direct manner 01' in the indirect manner described and claimed in my application filed March 18, 1920, Serial No. 366,968.

In case the added material is to be employed solely for the purpose of scavenging, only sufiicient of the same is added as will be oxidized in process; while if a residue of the material be desired in the resulting metal for the sake of the peculiar properties thereby conferred, a sufficiently greater quantity is added to effect this, after the necessary slag losses caused by the scavenging which always occurs. In the latter case I preferably produce an alloy containing between about one per cent. and about eighteen per cent. of aluminum along with a corresponding amount of silicon depending upon the proportion of the same .which accompanied the aluminum. The effect of the aluminum isnot only to enhance the resiista'nca of the metal to hlgh temperatures, but it also possesses certain valuable electrical and magnetic qualities such as that of lowering hysteresis losse in much the same manner as silicon, and its use in compan with silicon affords added advantages 1n- 'this respect. It thus becomes valuable for the armatures of electromagnetic machines, for

transformer cores, and in many kinds of in the relationship described, of an alloy containing silicon and aluminum, and that this feature is not diminished by the addition of other materials thereto; also that while I have pointed out a few important uses and purposes for which my dis-, covery can be employed I am not limited to the same nor to any details except as specified in my claim.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim 1s:--

The method of producing an alloy of iron and aluminum which contains the steps of first preparing an alloy of aluminum c0n- 10 In testimony whereof, I hereunto aifix my 15 signature.

ALADAR PACZ. 

